Re: [nfc-l] UK flight calling and Radar Locations

2009-09-30 Thread Bryan Guarente
Michael, Jeff Wells, and other radar enthusiasts,
For British Isles radar data, you can check the UK Met Office website here:
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/radar/index.html

By clicking on the radar locations, you can see the local radar scans rather 
than the composite radar image for the UK.  This is where I would look to find 
radar imagery, but having never lived in the UK or had much need for looking at 
radar imagery in that country, I am not familiar with many of their radar 
websites.

Some of their radar sites are Doppler radars.  For a complete list check on 
page ten of this UK Met Office Radar document:
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/corporate/library/factsheets/factsheet15.pdf

The problem with looking at these radar images is that they are filtered by the 
Met Office to remove "ground clutter".  This is often the same range of 
reflectivity where birds show up, so they are likely removed from the imagery 
displayed on the web.  It is specifically stated in their fact sheet that 
drizzle often isn't seen on their radar imagery, this usually means that most 
birds are not going to show up on their radar imagery (that is displayed on the 
web).  

On a slightly different topic, ever since Jeff Wells emailed this list 
wondering where to get radar imagery for other locations in the world aside 
from the US, I have been trying to track down all the radar locations for the 
globe and plot them in Google Earth.  Being able to find the radar locations is 
one thing, but finding the radar imagery that is real-time and readily 
available on the net for those sites can be impossible in some instances.  
African radars are notorious for this, because there isn't enough money, parts, 
and know-how to repair the radars if anything goes wrong with them.

You may wonder why I am only plotting the locations of the radars.  I am only 
plotting locations, because I was hoping the community might be able to help 
find the radar imagery sources.  Not being familiar with each country's weather 
service makes it hard to find images, and not every country has a weather 
service either which makes it even harder to find the images in some instances. 
 Other countries make their radar imagery available only to citizens accessing 
the imagery from that country.  If anyone knows where to get radar imagery for 
the radars found in the Google Earth file, please let me know.  I know 
currently where to get radar imagery for the US, the UK, Canada, South Korea, 
Australia, Israel, and Malta, with a few other leads.  This is not yet the 
entire radar set, but I will be updating the file through time and hope I can 
come close to a complete dataset for the globe.  

Having said all this, it isn't clear that every country will have radar imagery 
that isn't filtered, so it might be like the UK imagery that tries to filter 
out the "clutter" (including birds).  

Here is a link to the radar locations file:
http://homes.comet.ucar.edu/~guarente/Google.Earth/Radar/Radar.Locations.Network.Link.kmz

Open that file in Google Earth and you will see placemarks (thumbtacks) for all 
the radar ocations I have found, before I had real work impede my work flow on 
this side project.

 
If you have any questions about Google Earth use, or radars, feel free to ask.  

Bryan Guarente
Meteorologist and Instructional Designer
The COMET Program
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
Boulder, CO


  
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Re: [nfc-l] UK flight calling

2009-09-29 Thread Magnus Robb
Hi Gerard,

I think I did ask one or two Irishmen (in Belfast and Wexford), but  
they may not have been listening much at night. I'm very interested  
to read that you heard Fieldfares, and have no reason to doubt it.  
I've always thought that I 'should' hear them at night, and was  
surprised that I didn't.

One thing that may be of interest is that Fieldfare and Mistle  
Thrush, the other species I've not been hearing at night, are the two  
thrushes with the lowest-pitched flight calls. Redwing, Blackbird and  
Song Thrush have high-pitched flight calls, not unlike many of the  
zips of NA wood warblers and sparrows. So perhaps Fieldfare and MT  
are less 'into' nocturnal migration, and have not evolved such  
specialized flight calls. On the other hand, when I lived in Holland  
I sometimes saw them coming in off the sea in the morning, so they  
presumably crossed the North Sea at night.

cheers,

Magnus


On 29 Sep 2009, at 15:2716, SLIMBIRD Gerard wrote:

> Hello Magnus,
>
> I was most surprised to read that nobody you’ve asked has ever  
> heard Fieldfare at night!? But I’d be interested to know if you’ve  
> asked any Irish birders? As a young birder growing up in the  
> suburbs of Dublin Ireland during the late seventies and eighties,  
> I’m sure we’d occasionally hear Fieldfares on migration at night,  
> particularly when it was clear that there was also a good push of  
> Redwings taking place.  It wasn’t common to hear them- not as you  
> would Blackbirds, Song Thrushes or Redwings. And you wouldn’t  
> necessarily hear Fieldfares during good Redwing flights either. It  
> was a long time ago, and my memory might have me thinking that it  
> happened more frequently than it actually did. But I believe it was  
> most definitely AT NIGHT, that is, at least two or more hours after  
> dark, and on a good night with northeast winds you could hear a  
> least two or three birds at least. (Please keep in mind that I was  
> not purposely “monitoring” migration- frequency and/or time of  
> night and certainly not listening throughout the night). My main  
> point here is that it was taken for granted that you could/would  
> hear Fieldfares at night? I’m sure I recall other birders  
> commenting that they had heard them. Am I totally mistaken somehow?  
> As I remember, the call was a short dry “chack” I think, which  
> might have been repeated somehow like “chack-chack-chack” or such,  
> I honestly can’t remember exactly, but it was pretty distinctive.  
> I’m tempted to think whether the birds might have called arriving  
> over the lighted streets having just crossed the Irish Sea? But the  
> UK is littered with coastal cities not just the Republic of  
> Ireland, so I’m genuinely surprised and a bit bewildered?
>
> My house was about a 15 minute walk from the north Bull Island in  
> Dublin Bay. I could sometimes hear shorebirds in bed at night,  
> mostly Redshanks and Curlew but also the occasional Dunlin,  
> Oystercatcher, Greenshank and one or two Green Sandpiper over the  
> years I think, and flocks of Brant and the odd Wigeon- but it’s all  
> late seventies and the eighties I’m thinking of. Nobody I knew kept  
> notes on night migration.
>
> BTW, I very much enjoy your Petrels book!
>
> Cheers,
>
> Gerard Phillips
> Ontario, Canada
>
>
> On 9/28/09 4:47 PM, "Magnus Robb"  wrote:
>
>> Hi Mike,
>>
>> At this time of year in much of the UK, Song Thrushes should still  
>> be the dominant thrush, but Blackbirds and Redwings will be  
>> starting to join them. With a lot of luck you might hear a Ring  
>> Ouzel, but this is not a common thrush. Oddly enough, Mistle  
>> Thrush and Fieldfare don't seem to call much at night. Nobody I've  
>> asked has ever head more than the odd call at dusk or dawn, even  
>> at times when many were moving through. Has anyone in this group  
>> heard them at night?
>>
>> As for other passerines, relatively few European ones seem to use  
>> flight calls at night, which partly explains the relative lack of  
>> interest in night flight calls over here. Most of what you hear  
>> comes from the three species of thrush I mentioned first. Among  
>> the passerines I've definitely heard flying over at night are:  
>> Skylark, Woodlark, Tree Pipit, Snow Bunting and Ortolan. A Willow  
>> Warbler at night sounds unlikely, as none of our warblers call  
>> much in flight (except Cisticolas). Did you get a recording?
>>
>> I live in Portugal where there are huge numbers of Pied  
>> Flycatchers passing through just now. I've been out several nights  
>> trying to find out whether they have nocturnal flight calls, but  
>> so far without any conclusive results. What I have learned however  
>> is that I am hearing a few passerine flight calls that I can't yet  
>> identify. I have a good knowledge of the calls of most western  
>> European species by day, so perhaps some are using different calls  
>> at night that I've simply never heard. In short, lots 

Re: [nfc-l] UK flight calling

2009-09-29 Thread SLIMBIRD Gerard
Hello Magnus,

I was most surprised to read that nobody you¹ve asked has ever heard
Fieldfare at night!? But I¹d be interested to know if you¹ve asked any Irish
birders? As a young birder growing up in the suburbs of Dublin Ireland
during the late seventies and eighties, I¹m sure we¹d occasionally hear
Fieldfares on migration at night, particularly when it was clear that there
was also a good push of Redwings taking place.  It wasn¹t common to hear
them- not as you would Blackbirds, Song Thrushes or Redwings. And you
wouldn¹t necessarily hear Fieldfares during good Redwing flights either. It
was a long time ago, and my memory might have me thinking that it happened
more frequently than it actually did. But I believe it was most definitely
AT NIGHT, that is, at least two or more hours after dark, and on a good
night with northeast winds you could hear a least two or three birds at
least. (Please keep in mind that I was not purposely ³monitoring² migration-
frequency and/or time of night and certainly not listening throughout the
night). My main point here is that it was taken for granted that you
could/would hear Fieldfares at night? I¹m sure I recall other birders
commenting that they had heard them. Am I totally mistaken somehow? As I
remember, the call was a short dry ³chack² I think, which might have been
repeated somehow like ³chack-chack-chack² or such, I honestly can¹t remember
exactly, but it was pretty distinctive. I¹m tempted to think whether the
birds might have called arriving over the lighted streets having just
crossed the Irish Sea? But the UK is littered with coastal cities not just
the Republic of Ireland, so I¹m genuinely surprised and a bit bewildered?

My house was about a 15 minute walk from the north Bull Island in Dublin
Bay. I could sometimes hear shorebirds in bed at night, mostly Redshanks and
Curlew but also the occasional Dunlin, Oystercatcher, Greenshank and one or
two Green Sandpiper over the years I think, and flocks of Brant and the odd
Wigeon- but it¹s all late seventies and the eighties I¹m thinking of. Nobody
I knew kept notes on night migration.

BTW, I very much enjoy your Petrels book!

Cheers,

Gerard Phillips
Ontario, Canada


On 9/28/09 4:47 PM, "Magnus Robb"  wrote:

> Hi Mike,
> 
> At this time of year in much of the UK, Song Thrushes should still be the
> dominant thrush, but Blackbirds and Redwings will be starting to join them.
> With a lot of luck you might hear a Ring Ouzel, but this is not a common
> thrush. Oddly enough, Mistle Thrush and Fieldfare don't seem to call much at
> night. Nobody I've asked has ever head more than the odd call at dusk or dawn,
> even at times when many were moving through. Has anyone in this group heard
> them at night? 
> 
> As for other passerines, relatively few European ones seem to use flight calls
> at night, which partly explains the relative lack of interest in night flight
> calls over here. Most of what you hear comes from the three species of thrush
> I mentioned first. Among the passerines I've definitely heard flying over at
> night are: Skylark, Woodlark, Tree Pipit, Snow Bunting and Ortolan. A Willow
> Warbler at night sounds unlikely, as none of our warblers call much in flight
> (except Cisticolas). Did you get a recording?
> 
> I live in Portugal where there are huge numbers of Pied Flycatchers passing
> through just now. I've been out several nights trying to find out whether they
> have nocturnal flight calls, but so far without any conclusive results. What I
> have learned however is that I am hearing a few passerine flight calls that I
> can't yet identify. I have a good knowledge of the calls of most western
> European species by day, so perhaps some are using different calls at night
> that I've simply never heard. In short, lots to learn for us Europeans too!
> 
> Besides passerines, you are of course likely to hear lots of shorebirds, and
> geese as the autumn progresses. Which species you hear will depend very much
> on where you are.
> 
> Feel free to send me some of your UFO recordings. I'm keen to puzzle and learn
> about what else is flying over at night...
> 
> cheers,
> 
> Magnus Robb
> 
> 
> On 27 Sep 2009, at 22:1501, Michael Lanzone wrote:
> 
>> Hi all,
>> 
>> Last night I heard my first flight calling overseas. Currently I am in
>> Chester, England and had a decent number of migrants this morning. Not sure
>> what to expect for numbers  here, but I was hearing 8-10 thrushes per minute
>> during the peak, typically less though. I am guessing Song/mistle Thrush,
>> also had what sounded like Willow Warbler, many unknown. Will need to learn
>> more night flight calls here! Had a number of shorebirds pass over as well,
>> greenshank, lapwing, redshank, green sandpiper?, golden plover, etc. Looking
>> forwrd to the next several weeks in Europe! Any advice from any of you as to
>> what you are hearing this time of year? I will be mostly in UK for the next
>> week, then spending most the rest of my 

Re: [nfc-l] UK flight calling

2009-09-28 Thread Michael Lanzone
Hi all,

Thanks for the feedback from all of you that responded on the list and
privately! Some of you were wondering when specifically I listened, well,
last night between 2- 2:30am and then again 5-6am, however I think it was
too breezy here and I did not hear anything at all. But the night before
when there was some calling activity I listened some at about 3am and then
heard mostly shorebirds plus some unknown spp. I then listened between about
5:30 and and 6:30 am, it was still dark out, have not civil twilight was
6:50. I heard most of the calling in this period. Some calls were either
Song or Mistle Thrush not sure which, I am wondering now if they really move
nocturnally much at all though. From my observations of both species the
last several days, in habit they seem very similar to our American Robin,
which will sometimes move pre-dawn, most of the time they move early am
though and will vocalize heavily sometimes in the hour before sunrise. The
vocalizations I heard were similar to song/mistle flight notes I heard while
observing these spp. here the last several mornings. The Willow Warbler ID
was purely a guess, but it sounded virtually identical to the call I heard
in the field that day and was fairly close overhead. A single rising
"tuwee", but as I found out today Chiffchaff have a similar call to this too
which they do give in flight. I was also curious about this as I had heard
sylvids did not call at all at night, and it could be that the call I heard
was from some other species all together that I am not familiar with. Much
to learn for sure, that is why I am so excited to be here and have the
opportunity to listen a bit while I am here! I did not get any recordings
yet as I failed to bring the right UK converter for my computer, but I got
one today! I will be traveling to Scotland tomorrow for about 5 days before
working my way over to the Swiss/Italian alps to do some recording in
mountain passes there, should be interesting! I will let all of you know
what I find/record. I would be interested to hear more from others with
there observation over here too!

On a side note, I noticed over here there seems not to be very good radar
coverage. It could just be that I am not finding the right sites though, but
I was looking for just simple reflectivity to gauge migration intensity vs
what I was hearing. Is there doppler radar in Europe?

Talk to you all soon,
Mike


Michael Lanzone
Biotechnology and Biomonitoring Lab Supervisor
Carnegie Museum of Natural History
Powdermill Avian Research Center
1847 Route 381
Rector, PA 15677
724.593.5521 Office
mlanz...@gmail.com


On Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 4:47 PM, Magnus Robb  wrote:

>  Hi Mike,
> At this time of year in much of the UK, Song Thrushes should still be the
> dominant thrush, but Blackbirds and Redwings will be starting to join
> them. With a lot of luck you might hear a Ring Ouzel, but this is not a
> common thrush. Oddly enough, Mistle Thrush and Fieldfare don't seem to call
> much at night. Nobody I've asked has ever head more than the odd call at
> dusk or dawn, even at times when many were moving through. Has anyone in
> this group heard them at night?
>
> As for other passerines, relatively few European ones seem to use flight
> calls at night, which partly explains the relative lack of interest in night
> flight calls over here. Most of what you hear comes from the three species
> of thrush I mentioned first. Among the passerines I've definitely heard
> flying over at night are: Skylark, Woodlark, Tree Pipit, Snow Bunting and
> Ortolan. A Willow Warbler at night sounds unlikely, as none of our warblers
> call much in flight (except Cisticolas). Did you get a recording?
>
> I live in Portugal where there are huge numbers of Pied Flycatchers passing
> through just now. I've been out several nights trying to find out whether
> they have nocturnal flight calls, but so far without any conclusive results.
> What I have learned however is that I am hearing a few passerine flight
> calls that I can't yet identify. I have a good knowledge of the calls of
> most western European species by day, so perhaps some are using different
> calls at night that I've simply never heard. In short, lots to learn for us
> Europeans too!
>
> Besides passerines, you are of course likely to hear lots of shorebirds,
> and geese as the autumn progresses. Which species you hear will depend very
> much on where you are.
>
> Feel free to send me some of your UFO recordings. I'm keen to puzzle
> and learn about what else is flying over at night...
>
> cheers,
>
> Magnus Robb
>
>
> On 27 Sep 2009, at 22:1501, Michael Lanzone wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> Last night I heard my first flight calling overseas. Currently I am in
> Chester, England and had a decent number of migrants this morning. Not sure
> what to expect for numbers  here, but I was hearing 8-10 thrushes per minute
> during the peak, typically less though. I am guessing Song/mistle Thrush,
> also had what sounded 

Re: [nfc-l] UK flight calling

2009-09-28 Thread Magnus Robb
Hi Mike,

At this time of year in much of the UK, Song Thrushes should still be  
the dominant thrush, but Blackbirds and Redwings will be starting to  
join them. With a lot of luck you might hear a Ring Ouzel, but this  
is not a common thrush. Oddly enough, Mistle Thrush and Fieldfare  
don't seem to call much at night. Nobody I've asked has ever head  
more than the odd call at dusk or dawn, even at times when many were  
moving through. Has anyone in this group heard them at night?

As for other passerines, relatively few European ones seem to use  
flight calls at night, which partly explains the relative lack of  
interest in night flight calls over here. Most of what you hear comes  
from the three species of thrush I mentioned first. Among the  
passerines I've definitely heard flying over at night are: Skylark,  
Woodlark, Tree Pipit, Snow Bunting and Ortolan. A Willow Warbler at  
night sounds unlikely, as none of our warblers call much in flight  
(except Cisticolas). Did you get a recording?

I live in Portugal where there are huge numbers of Pied Flycatchers  
passing through just now. I've been out several nights trying to find  
out whether they have nocturnal flight calls, but so far without any  
conclusive results. What I have learned however is that I am hearing  
a few passerine flight calls that I can't yet identify. I have a good  
knowledge of the calls of most western European species by day, so  
perhaps some are using different calls at night that I've simply  
never heard. In short, lots to learn for us Europeans too!

Besides passerines, you are of course likely to hear lots of  
shorebirds, and geese as the autumn progresses. Which species you  
hear will depend very much on where you are.

Feel free to send me some of your UFO recordings. I'm keen to puzzle  
and learn about what else is flying over at night...

cheers,

Magnus Robb


On 27 Sep 2009, at 22:1501, Michael Lanzone wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> Last night I heard my first flight calling overseas. Currently I am  
> in Chester, England and had a decent number of migrants this  
> morning. Not sure what to expect for numbers  here, but I was  
> hearing 8-10 thrushes per minute during the peak, typically less  
> though. I am guessing Song/mistle Thrush, also had what sounded  
> like Willow Warbler, many unknown. Will need to learn more night  
> flight calls here! Had a number of shorebirds pass over as well,  
> greenshank, lapwing, redshank, green sandpiper?, golden plover,  
> etc. Looking forwrd to the next several weeks in Europe! Any advice  
> from any of you as to what you are hearing this time of year? I  
> will be mostly in UK for the next week, then spending most the rest  
> of my time in France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy. I also hope to  
> spend some time in the alps listening to nocturnal migration,  
> possibly col de bretolet. Anyway, be interestd in what to expect  
> and some sample calls if any of you have them to share! I am doing  
> some recording so will hopefully have something good to share as well.
>
> Talk to you all soon,
> Mike
>
> Michael Lanzone
> Biotechnology and Biomonitoring Lab Supervisor
> Carnegie Museum of Natural History
> Powdermill Avian Research Center
> 1847 Route 381
> Rector, PA 15677
> 724.593.5521 Office
> mlanz...@gmail.com
>
> Sent from my iPhone


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